How to Use Intent Data with AI to Boost Sales & Marketing

“Everyone includes ‘artificial intelligence’ on their website. Tell us – What do you really do?”

This is the most frequent question I hear as a product manager when I talk with prospects. The proliferation and ubiquity of artificial intelligence, especially after the launch of Salesforce Einstein, means predictive marketing and sales intelligence companies need to explain what they mean when they reference AI and how intent data (or “active demand”) affects its functionality.

When I started at EverString, the No. 1 goal was simple: How do we help sales and marketing professionals to become superstars? We actually found superstars from different companies and figured out what they did to become successful. Our team discovered that top performing sales professionals spent 15 minutes researching what a company does by going through the company’s website, Wikipedia, news and other public sources. Once they have used their “human intelligence” to sift through the information, they became more informed about their potential prospects.

“No matter where your team is at with intent data, EverString has a platform equipped with surge scores built to scale to your specific sales or marketing plan.”

For example, if someone asks what Marketo does, an informed revenue professional will conclude that Marketo is a “Marketing Automation Software Company.” This is the result of a revenue professional, over the course of 15 minutes, learning and analyzing data about Marketo. At EverString, we have automated the above process through crawling and natural language processing in combination with groundbreaking intent data capabilities so that this information is right at your fingertips when you’re prospecting and building pipeline.

We also found that sales professionals usually close deals faster by looking to their past sales wins as a foundation. In short, reusing the same sales plays with similar companies ultimately helps them build closeable pipeline. Thus, another goal was how to get in the mind of sales professionals and find all companies on the web that are similar to the company you spent 15 minutes researching. Since we automated the process, EverString Audience Platform allows users to find all companies on the internet that look similar to an ideal customer within few seconds. Combining the “human intelligence” together with millions of data signals makes EAP an AI-assisted sales and marketing intelligence software platform that helps you find “high-fit, target companies” fast, and intent plays a large role in these goals.

Once you have such a tool, gaining more control of your pipeline doesn’t have to be an uphill battle. Sales and marketing strategies move fast, so you should be able to easily find high-potential prospects who are most interested in your products or services. This is exactly why there is a lot of talk about intent data and how it is impacting sales and marketing efforts.

Predictive software combined with intent data can offload many marketing and sales efforts, so all you need to do is sell. EverString Audience Platform already mines the internet for high-fit leads based on a model that best resembles your ideal customer. However, thanks to EverString’s recent partnership with Bombora, a leading intent data provider, sales and marketing efforts are bolstered even further.

Why Should You Care About Intent Data?

Sales and marketing teams are now operating in a space where they are expected to quickly accelerate pipeline more accurately and efficiently. That means that the traditional manual approach to prospecting and finding leads needs to evolve into a more streamlined and data-driven solution. Intent data has been gaining a lot of ground with B2B SaaS platforms, mostly because intent allows sales and marketing teams to enable “active search” features – also known as surge scores.

Or, to put it in simpler terms, sales and marketers can clearly see which companies are actively researching their products and services in real time through intent data. The combination of EverString Audience Platform with Bombora means sales and marketing teams can now use a powerful combination of an AI Sales SaaS platform and intent data to uncover new business connections. This will help your sales and marketing teams focus their energy on the accounts and contacts that are already expressing interest in the products or services you provide, ultimately allowing your company to prospect closer to the finish line with a closed deal.

Finding the right accounts and contacts can be a tough thing to do for sales and marketing teams of all types. Perhaps you are working for a new company that’s still in the beginning stages and focusing on your first customers. You might also have been with an established company for some time, but are tired of using existing programs that just aren’t efficient or data-driven enough. Maybe you’re on a large team that has too many leads and need to prioritize your time and pipeline.

No matter where your team is at with intent data, EverString has a platform equipped with surge scores built to scale to your specific sales or marketing plan – and it doesn’t require a lot of training. EverString Audience Platform offers a combination of intent and account-based marketing and sales capabilities in a self-service platform that’s designed to give you a real-time snapshot of companies that are currently researching your products or services.

AI is changing the way that salespeople and marketers are interacting with new prospects and accounts. Intent is now part of EverString Audience Platform, so it’s time to get on board with these new innovations so that your teams can enjoy speed, accuracy and real-time sales and marketing intelligence on your terms.